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Farewell to Enchantment

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klrno2

klrno2

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Joined
Jun 28, 2005
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Location
Texas, of course (duh)
First Name
Sandy
Bitter sweet...home coming while leaving a lovely place. In 2004, I was invited to work and live in New Mexico. I turned it down, as my boy was still in high school, and I had only been home for one year, having spent the last three years living and working in California.

In 2005, I was invited to take a series of two to three week business trips to New Mexico...which my husband and I enjoyed very much. In 2006, I was invited once again, to live and work in New Mexico...and accepted the offer, which was to last only one year. Well, it's been longer than that...and we're finally going home again, home to Texas. The thing is, New Mexico truly is a land of enchantment...and we've been thoroughly enchanted.


Perfect adventure touring roads...
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Super fun pavement...
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Beautiful scenery...and fantastic views
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Places to let loose the fun in the KLRs...
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We're going to miss all that, and many more things that I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment, but I think what we'll miss most, is the silence.

No man made sounds of any kinds (while our KLRs are resting).....
no planes, trains, cars or trucks...no human voices, no radio.......
just birds, bugs, and wind in the trees...or thunder.
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Our rides are always only day rides, because we're tied to the house by our dogs. We don't like to leave them in the house alone too long...which makes it harder to find new places, but believe it or not...we still do.

During our last month or so here...you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll be out riding and shooting photos, every chance we get. I'll continue to add stuff here, and hopefully, I won't bore y'all, but rather pass on our enchantment.
 
Wow, beautiful pics. I definetely need to put NM on the list of destinations. I'd be sad to leave too!!! :zen:
 
klrno2 said:
Bitter sweet...home coming while leaving a lovely place. In 2004, I was invited to work and live in New Mexico. I turned it down, as my boy was still in high school, and I had only been home for one year, having spent the last three years living and working in California.

In 2005, I was invited to take a series of two to three week business trips to New Mexico...which my husband and I enjoyed very much. In 2006, I was invited once again, to live and work in New Mexico...and accepted the offer, which was to last only one year. Well, it's been longer than that...and we're finally going home again, home to Texas. The thing is, New Mexico truly is a land of enchantment...and we've been thoroughly enchanted.
Click to expand...

Northern New Mexico (new and improved over the Old Mexico!) is beautiful. We really enjoyed our trip to Santa Fe a few years ago and the day trip we took through Los Alamos and circling around back to Santa Fe.

But welcome back to Texas!


Lee
(Sugar Land - it's flat and wet, but it's home)
 
Glad to have the two of you back but it does look like you enjoyed your stay.
Too bad you can't do both!
:mrgreen:
 
On the bright side, welcome back.

On the sad side, I feel your sadness in leaving. If I could in any way swing it, I'd be living there in those mountains, too.(NE NM) It captured me when I was there; part of me is still there. And I vowed to return (this September).

Perhaps you can provide me with some places to go aka "Places You Should Not Miss". :rider:
:)

Thanks for posting the photos. (elicited a 'twang' in the gut: the pull that takes your spirit back there and your body wants to follow)
 
Thanks for the welcome home Chuck.

TexasShadow - how I wish we could have explored more of New Mexico. However, as I said, our dogs kept us tied to the house so that we could never stay gone too long. They kept us limited to exploring the surrounding areas, which was in the southeast corner of the state. When you come out in September, if you choose to go southeast, don't miss the White Sands and the Lincoln National Forest around the small towns of Cloudcroft, Mayhill, Weed, Timberon and Pinon. The White Sands are down in the Tularosa Basin, desert country. I remember thinking, ah, what's to see? A bunch of white sand? But I gotta say, it's unique and shouldn't be missed.

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I'm all confused about my feelings on leaving. I wanna go home, but I don't want to leave here. I guess melancholy is a good description. At least my husband and I have learned the area well enough to come back and go straight to some fantastic camping spots. Motorcycle camping! Yeah! :sun:
 
klrno2 said:
A bunch of white sand? But I gotta say, it's unique and shouldn't be missed.

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Click to expand...
Wow! That shot is almost surreal. The contrasts, amazing.

I'm reserving SE NM for another time and instead returning to the NE area this September. Rode through it twice last Sept; on the way home it was torturous. I didn't want to leave and continue east. I felt like the reluctant end of a tightly stretched rubber band wanting to snap back to that which held the other end. It was a visceral feeling that was almost agonizing to resist.

(the aspens had exploded into golden twirling clouds against the green blankets of mountains and blue sky, and the air was crisp, cool and clear. The only sounds other than my bike and my gasps were the breezes through the aspen leaves and bubbling creeks. It was euphoric. Riding into Texas was so anticlimactic, I just couldn't go home. I veered off into Oklahoma for a few days. :)

I empathize.

Have a good trip home, and you can always go back. It will all be waiting for you.
 
This thread brought to you by the New Mexico Visitors bureau :lol2:

Just kidding the pics are beautiful. We may be traveling through northern NM on our way to CO next month

Stephen
 
Too bad...just when we are getting Angel out and riding...we'll make sure and post lots of pics when we ride Cloudcroft in October...
 
bullfrog said:
Too bad...just when we are getting Angel out and riding...we'll make sure and post lots of pics when we ride Cloudcroft in October...
Click to expand...

Yeah, that is too bad. I sure hope y'all have good weather in Cloudcroft during October. The area seems to be on an early weather pattern this year...early summer rain season. I'm hoping that does NOT mean an early snow season in Cloudcroft.

I look forward to your ride report this fall.
 
NM is a great place to ride! I love Santa Fe. My favorite tamales are sold on the corner of the old city. yum.
 
:zen: Another weekend to ride in the Lincoln National Forest. Riding along, enjoying the fabulous mountain air, scented with evergreens of all kinds...wait, do you smell smoke?

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yeah, we smelled smoke, and found that campfire unattended, left to either die out or start a forest fire. :thumbd:

:doh: The fire danger level in the forest is HIGH :doh:

What kind of inconsiderate idiot left that fire burning, in this lovely little mountain meadow, putting the forest and all of it's inhabitants at risk? I am one of those inhabitants, at least for another month or so. :angryfire

See the water tank, kind of hidden in the trees, back up the slope a bit?
See the water bottle strapped to the back of my bike?

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It took a lot of walking back and forth, and a lot of this...
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...to put that fire out. Here's my husband, Scooter...job well done.
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Fiery tradegy averted, we got back on the trail and continued enjoying the forest, still dumbfounded as to how someone could come out here, camp, have a good time...and then risk it all being too lazy to douse their own campfire.

And now...some random shots from the rest of the day.

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Some cool places, both old and new...

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And I'll leave you for today with this rainbow, shot from the deck of our house.
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Awesome! Again!! :clap:

Excellent job done. You two get the 'Smokey the Elk' Award!
(Bear already taken ;)

Hmmm...... I'm thinking more and more I should be taking the Sherpa up there to go on those roads; a lot more fun!!

Keep those photos and travelogues coming.
Makes my feet all the more itchy.
 
klrno2 said:
:zen:

yeah, we smelled smoke, and found that campfire unattended, left to either die out or start a forest fire. :thumbd:

:doh: The fire danger level in the forest is HIGH :doh:

What kind of inconsiderate idiot left that fire burning, in this lovely little mountain meadow, putting the forest and all of it's inhabitants at risk? I am one of those inhabitants, at least for another month or so. :angryfire
Click to expand...

Get a rope!

Seriously, the more I see of human behavior the more I lean to the theory that a large percentage (most?) of modern-day Americans shouldn't be allowed to roam around unattended. :brainsnap

I don't think they are necessarily malignant, just STOOPID.

God bless,

Lee
 
leekellerking said:
Seriously, the more I see of human behavior the more I lean to the theory that a large percentage (most?) of modern-day Americans shouldn't be allowed to roam around unattended. :brainsnap

I don't think they are necessarily malignant, just STOOPID
Click to expand...
Unless people are held accountable for their behaviour, they don't learn.
Kinda like kids..........
 
Sandy:

After almost 11 years in Northern NM, for family reasons, I came back to Texas. I love my family beyond all good sense and reason. But not a day passes in which my heart does not yearn for the "Land of Enchantment" where the sky is so blue, your eyes ache if you look too long at it. Some of your pictures remind me of the forrest roads high in the Nicemento's north of Cuba, NM.

Do I know what tugs at your heart? You bet I do. I see those pictures and my soul cries out, longing for those mountains, those wide open country, and the SILENCE... the serenity of sitting alone high on the side of a mountain relishing and listening to the Majesty of God expressed in Nature all around me...

Simply to say, I miss NM and miss those enchanting places is to be guilty of a gross and totally crass understatement.

JR
Lake Livingston, TX
 
Great pictures of a beautiful state. I am sure you will miss living up there.....I must get out there to ride. Good on you for putting that campfire out. I have run across such small fires,....what are people thinking? Just hearing about the fires that are destroying homes out south of the Lake Tahoe area, even as we speak should be a reminder to people.

Don
 
I fear I will not live long enough to visit all these beautiful places. Life is like an open book; not traveling is like never turning a page.
 
thanks folks...I can see that my words and pictures have adequately expressed my sorrow of leaving New Mexico. I have last Sunday's ride to add to the report when I get a little more time.

I gotta say though, I love Texas...I think it's also a beautiful state, although maybe in a different way. I'm not sad to be coming home to my beloved Texas, just sad to leave New Mexico.
 
New Mexico isn't that far away to visit ya' know. If nothing else at least you can say that you lived there for a while and have great memories to boot. I can relate since I moved back here in October after living in Florida for almost 20 years...there really is nothing like coming home to Texas. It's bigger than France !!
 
Lived down in Silver City when I was a kid. My dad worked at a long range radar site perched on top of a mountain peak, brushy mountain I think.

Just got a chance to go back there last week after 40 years, other than everything I remember being so big as a kid looking so small now like the house we used to live in and my old elementary school, it was great. Especially the memories of the old Mogollon cat walk walking through there and diving into that cold mountain spring runoff.

I'll be going back..
 
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